Wilga 2000- The Repair

by noaflight2 | February 18, 2015 | (6) Posted in Tips

The Maiden

Right now in North Carolina it is snowing and the water is freezing. I thought that this would be a great day to maiden my Wilga. The maiden did not go as planned, so I needed to make some repairs. As I was flying, my Wilga tip stalled, sending it into the hard, frozen ground. The crash broke the elevator and motor mount. I was determined to repair it using the skills and techniques that I had learned from Flite Test!

Before The Maiden

 

After The Maiden

Repairing The Wilga

The crashed Wilga needed a new elevator and motor mount, I turned to my scratchbuilding bestfriends- Adams Foam Board and Hot Glue. The elevator bent and ripped during the crash, so I needed to make a new one. I used the broken elevator to trace out a new one on foam board. Then, I cut the new elevator out and beveled the hinge line. I punctured two holes in the elevator, for the screws, to secure the foam board elevator on the plane. I then installed the foam board elevator onto the Wilga. I also needed to make a new motor because it was damaged during the crash. Using Flite Test techniques, I made a motor mount consisting of a series of B-Folds and A-Folds, and of course a lot of hot glue. The motor mount is a large square, but unlike normal FT Power Pods, the motor is inside of the pod. After installing the motor inside of the pod, I glued it to the front of the fuselage.

The DTFB Elevator by the Broken Elevator

 

Second Flight

After repairing the Wilga, I wanted to take it out for a flight. I took it off and did some figure-8s and some loops. I then landed the plane after a good 8 minutes of flying. As it is my first 4 Channel plane, I am still learning how to use rudder while turning. Overall the Wilga flew very well, and I am happy about how smoothly the repair went.

Tips For Flying The Wilga

  1. Keep your speed up! The Wilga has intense tip stalls!
  2. Use minimal throws! During my maiden, I used very high throws, causing the plane to be uncontrollable.
  3. When in doubt, throttle out!
  4. Never fly the Wilga in winds of more than 3 MPH. 
  5. Always fly 3 mistakes high!

Conclusion

This experience has taught me so much about flying and repairing RC Planes. While flying the Wilga, I learned the importance of using the rudder and maintaining speed throughout the turn. I also learned that it is necessary to take off and land into the wind. While repairing the Wilga, I was able to fine tune many skills that I had learned from Flite Test. I learned the importance of using A and B Folds and keeping measurments consistent throughout the build. I also learned that you should always trace out flimsy parts, like the elevator, before they brake. Tracing out the flimsy parts will allow you to easily replace them with foamboard. I have learned so much from flying and repairing the Wilga.

Thanks For Reading!

Please Rate!

COMMENTS

aeroncalover on February 21, 2015
Hey! you're stuck in the NC freeze too! sucks doesn't it! Ive been off of school all week, and the airplanes Ive built are piled almost to the ceiling! flying off the snow sure is fun though!
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noaflight2 on February 21, 2015
What part of NC are you in? Want to rate the article?
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noaflight2 on February 21, 2015
Yea! Snow flying is awesome though!
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noaflight2 on February 21, 2015
How should rudder be used while turning?
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Marnix on February 22, 2015
The rudder, by the way it is made, has a great effect on the roll axis. When you apply right rudder, the plane rolls also to the right.
As with most 4ch planes, the turning is done by combining the rudder and the ailerons. With this plane, what I do is start the turn with both of of them in the same direction (aileron and rudder to the right), then I only use the rudder in that direction, and counteract the rudder's roll-effect with a tiny bit of ailerons to the other side (Rudder-right, and a bit of Ailerons-left).

I hope that helped,
Marnix
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noaflight2 on February 22, 2015
Awesome! That helps a lot.
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Marnix on February 24, 2015
you'll see: it really comes naturally !
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Marnix on February 22, 2015
The Wilga-2000 is my favorite beginner plane !!!
It is a great beginner plane. It is so stable in the air and flies so nicely that its "2-mistakes-height" is really quite low.

I have a few comments about your 5 tips:
- Those minimal throw tip is really important, especially for the elevator. It flies horribly with big elevator movements.
- The three mistakes high is a great tip for beginners, but I often fly it between 1.5 and 0.5 mistakes high ! A lot of fun, until the crash... But even then, repairing the Wilga 2000 is really simple, as you have shown us.
- Do you really have intense tip stalls ??? the one I often fly with has really gentle stalls (if you can call that stalls) at extremely low speeds ! The stall is always characterized by a extremely gentle drop of the nose, easy to recover.
- This plane can easily handle a LOT more than 3MPH (about 5 Km/hour) !!! I have flown it with maximum 25 Km/hour (or 15.5 MPH) ! I think the limits of this plan lays between the 25 and 30 Km/hour, depending on how turbulent the wind is. the wind where I fly is usually quite turbulent...

Thanks for sharing this with us.

Fly safe
Marnix
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noaflight2 on February 22, 2015
Thanks for reading! For some reason, even though it is a stol plane, it stalls at low speeds for me. Thanks for the tips on the speed it can handle! Please rate if you like the article.
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Flying Fox on March 31, 2015
How did you do the floats ?????
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NCC1701 on February 22, 2015
I have this plane!! The wings folded way too much, so I added wooden booms for struts. Flies pretty well off water now, and land. I also had trouble with the firewall.
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noaflight2 on February 22, 2015
Awesome! I am thinking about adding a spar to the wing also. Could you please rate this article? Thanks!
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NCC1701 on February 28, 2015
Of course! 5 Stars :)
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Wilga 2000- The Repair